Windows Marketplace Breaches 100,000 App Mark

Number has practically doubled in the past six months, but still lags far behind iOS and Android.

Windows Marketplace, the application store for Windows Phone devices, now hosts more than 100,000 apps. The task took 20 months to achieve since its inception, but the growth has seen a tremendous acceleration in the past six months. Windows Marketplace had 50,000 apps in December 2011 and the number has since doubled. That being said, it still lags far behind Apple's App Store and Google Play hosting over 600,000 and 500,000 apps, respectively.

One of the reasons for the sudden surge can be attributed to active encouragement from Microsoft towards app developers in the form of an 18 million Euro investment in the Mobile Application Development Program at Aalto University. Moreover, the launch of several new Windows Phone devices such as the Nokia Lumia 900 could also be a reason for the spike. Nevertheless, Windows Marketplace has still got a lot of catching up to do with the competition, but if it can maintain the current momentum, it just might make it.